FBI Analyst Stresses Trucking Cybersecurity Importance
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HOUSTON — FBI cyberintelligence analyst Trina Martin stressed the importance of trucking cybersecurity to the health of the economy during an Oct. 23 session at National Motor Freight Traffic Associations’ Digital Solutions Conference.
“This industry is so vital to the U.S., to our economy, to commerce,” Martin said. “I think we all felt and realized the importance when we had that supply chain issue where everybody was buying toilet paper, you go into a store and nobody could get toilet paper and things weren’t being delivered.”
The two-day event brought together cybersecurity experts from within and outside of the transportation sector to identify issue specifics and discuss best practices.
“In the FBI, we consider you guys critical infrastructure,” Martin said. “So, you’re very important. You’re the industry that we want to protect because we know that you are so vital.”
Packed house for Trina Martin’s presentation: Cyber Threat Landscape for 2024 at #NMFTACyber. @FBI (1/3) pic.twitter.com/67g3oYw9dt — National Motor Freight Traffic Association (@NMFTA) October 23, 2023
The FBI is the lead federal agency for investigating cybercrimes and cyberattacks. Martin noted there is a growing list of cyberattack methods that put companies and individuals at risk. She highlighted a few the trucking industry should protect itself against.
“The first sign that something happens you need to call us, whether the cyber actor actually was successful, or even if you thwarted a cyberattack,” Martin said. “We need you to call us and let us know. Even if it’s saying, ‘Hey, this was attempted, we saw this on our system, but they were unable to get into our system.’ You giving us that information and that data helps us put the pieces together to solve other criminal enterprises and things that happen.”
Thank you for joining us at #NMFTACyber, @ConnorInTheNews and @TransportTopics. https://t.co/itQ1VkNIkH — National Motor Freight Traffic Association (@NMFTA) October 24, 2023
Martin added that the No. 1 objective at the bureau when it comes to cybercrimes is to impose risks and consequences to the cybercriminals. The aim is to clearly signal to people that they will face consequences if they engage in cybercrimes no matter where in the world they are.
“We want them to know that if you commit a cybercrime, you’re going to pay,” Martin said. “It’s not just, ‘OK, we’re going to get fat and happy and attack people and then we’re going to go about our way.’ We want them to know that there is going to be jail time. And not only here domestically; we do get people internationally as well. We’re all about putting cuffs on people.”
Be Aware
Common cyberthreats are BEC (business email compromise), ransomware, smishing, phishing and pig butchering.
• BEC attacks occur when a cybercriminal compromises legitimate business email accounts through social engineering or computer intrusion techniques to initiate an unauthorized transfer of funds.
• Ransomware is when a cybercriminal steals or encrypts data to compel an organization or individual who rightfully owns the data to pay a ransom to get it back. Martin stressed the importance of being diligent when looking at emails, as well as training.
“We can’t stress it enough, just training regularly and consistently, making sure that everybody in your company, who you work for, your teams, that they know what’s going on,” Martin said. “And a lot of these crimes could be prevented if human interaction didn’t take place. So, a lot of these crimes are able to be successful because someone read an email, someone clicked something, we’re in a hurry.”
• Phishing is the use of unsolicited electronic messages that appear to come from a legitimate company requesting personal, financial or login information.
• Smishing is a social engineering attack that uses fake mobile text messages to trick people into downloading malware.
• Pig butchering is a rapidly growing investment scam focused on fake cryptocurrency.
“This one is fairly new and it’s actually pretty bad,” Martin said. “This one is a cryptocurrency scheme, and basically what it is, they will reach out to you via text message, social dating sites, Facebook, things like that, to get you involved in this financial investment scam.”
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